Month: February 2012

The CDC Report, “Mortality Among Teenagers Aged 12–19 Years” reports teenage mortality as an important public health issue because the majority of deaths among teenagers are caused by external causes of injury such as accidents, homicide, and suicide. These causes of death are, by definition, preventable.

The leading causes of death for the teenage population remained constant throughout the report’s study period, 1999–2006: Accidents (unintentional injuries) accounted for 48 percent of deaths, three-quarters of which were caused by motor vehicle accidents. The overall risk of dying for teenagers (average annual death rate) is 49.5 deaths per 100,000 population.